Above Photo by Leah Haydock Photography

Will You Marry Me?

Jeff Wayne • Denton, MD

It wasn’t a secret that I would propose to Shannon, the secret was when and how. I chose a scavenger hunt.

On August 29th, 2009, while we were in Maine, I left an envelope for Shannon that said: “Do not open until 3:45 pm.” She found it at 3pm and claims she waited the 45 minutes before opening it. The envelope contained instructions for her to head to the Arundel Wharf Restaurant, where Shannon had worked for eight years. Her excited former co-workers handed her the next clue: Go to Federal Jack’s, the place we had our first conversation.

The hostess at the Fed’s handed her the envelope, which sent her to the third, and almost final, location: Room 105 at the Nonantum. She says she searched the room for me for ten minutes until finding a note that directed her to “look outside.” I was in the gazebo, the site of our first kiss. The rest of the note said: “Does this place look familiar? I love you. Jeff.”

Shannon ran to the gazebo in her trench coat (Tropical Storm Danny was well underway) already crying. I pulled a garbage bag out of my pocket to kneel on (hey, I was wearing my favorite suit), pulled a ring box out of the other pocket, and asked her to marry me.

And she said yes.